Catholic Education Research Articles

Biblical Leadership Spirituality in Developing the Quality of Catholic Education

Catechists preach the Bible through the practice of catechesis. The proclamation is carried out in a methodical and organic manner. Catechist actors, in particular, focus on evangelizing the general public, both clergy and laity. In the real-world development of the Christian faith, laypeople who become catechists have a complicated responsibility. Because they are directly involved in the lives of the people, they are at the forefront of the ministry work. They are also, in another sense, among people who share God's word with others. The lay catechists' experiences in life have become so ingrained in people's lives. The realities of today are extremely diverse. Even though they live in a time of globalization and modernity, there are still a lot of areas in which civilization has not been particularly developed. Border areas are in many cases being ignored, like places that are sometimes still harder to get to than the development of government centers, like roads that are hard to get to. Catechists face difficulties in providing services due to the scattered location of their service stations. To continue serving under the most difficult circumstances, the catechists need a spiritual spirit to support their efforts in developing religious education in this global world.

Catholic universities: Political power, cultural paradigms, and identity from early modernity to the ‘long 1960s’. A historical overview

This paper delves into the historical trajectory of Catholic universities, spanning from the early modern era to the 'long 1960s’, focusing on the development and change of their religious identities and mission amidst challenges posed by state intervention, secularization, and shifts within the Church and society. The analysis explores the reforms introduced in university governance by internal or external agents and the transformation of academic cultures influenced by intellectual or scientific trends, political intervention, ideological activism, and religious currents within Catholicism. Concurrently, it evaluates how these processes affected the capacity of Catholic universities to shape society and maintain a relevant presence in culture, offering responses rooted in Christian faith and heritage. To achieve this, four distinct periods are characterized: the expansion of early modern Catholic universities under the post-Tridentine paradigm; the decline of Catholic higher education amidst enlightened reforms, the French Revolution, and the development of national university systems in the early 19th century; the Ultramontane and neo-Thomist revival, leading to the development of a new model of Catholic universities (1840s–1950s); and the impact of the ‘long 1960s’ on the identity and ethos of Catholic universities.

Breaking the Stained-Glass Ceiling: The Gendered Experiences of Women College Presidents of Catholic Institutions

This interpretive phenomenological study features the leadership experience of 16 current and former women college presidents of U.S. Roman Catholic colleges and universities. With Catholic organizations barring women from top leadership roles within the Church, the term “stained-glass ceiling” describes the unique leadership barriers that women face in Catholic higher education. Using Acker’s theory of gendered organizations as a framework, analysis revealed six findings that illustrate the exclusionary nature of the Catholic patriarchy, as well as women’s strategies for navigating these environments: waiting for the “right” presidency, emphasizing their difference, being “chief mission officer,” leading social justice initiatives, and supporting future leaders. Together, findings illustrate how participants shaped their presidencies in ways that aligned with their values and advanced women’s opportunity in the field. We offer implications for practice and future research.

Penerapan Teori Kebenaran dalam Evaluasi Pendidikan Iman Katolik: Studi Kasus Ujian Doa-Doa Dasar pada Calon Penerima Komuni Pertama Dengan Difabilitas Mental

The evaluation of Catholic religious education requires an inclusive and fair approach, especially in the context of preparing for first communion. The aim of this paper is to review such evaluations through the lens of truth theory, highlighting the challenges faced by children with cognitive conditions such as dyslexia, ADHD, and intellectual disabilities. The method of memorizing basic prayers in first communion exams is considered to not always reflect a true understanding of faith, especially for children with cognitive conditions. The ethical implications of assessments that do not consider these special needs result in injustice towards children with cognitive disabilities. To ensure inclusivity, the research recommends modifications in the evaluation process, including the use of more flexible and holistic alternative evaluation methods. Although this paper provides relevant insights into the issue, further research involving participants of religious education and Catholic practitioners is needed to develop a more inclusive evaluation approach. In conclusion, the evaluation of Catholic religious education needs to consider the needs of individuals with cognitive disabilities to achieve inclusivity and justice in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Anthropologische Wende in der katholischen Religionspädagogik?

Abstract In the following article, I address the question of whether an anthropological shift has taken place in Catholic religious education after the Second Vatican Council. Based on the special case of political religious education/catechesis of liberation I exemplify such a shift by means of three exemplary “crystallization points”: The International Catechetical Study Week in Medellín, the European Catechetical Equips (Équipe Européenne de Catéchèse), and the German-Italian exchange meetings. Through these case studies, I illustrate transnational processes of reception and internationalization of religious education.

IMPLEMENTASI TEAMS GAMES TOURNAMENT MODEL MENINGKATKAN MOTIVASI BELAJAR SISWA DI SD ST. ANTONIUS BANGUN MULIA MEDAN

This study investigates the effectiveness of implementing the Teams Games Tournament (TGT) model in enhancing students' motivation in the subject of Catholic Education for Grade V B at SD St. Antonius Bangun Mulia Medan during the academic year 2023/2024. The research adopts an action research approach with two cycles, where the first cycle showed students' motivation levels at a "Moderate" level (64%), while the second cycle exhibited a significant increase to a "High" level (82%). The findings reveal that consistently applying the TGT model enhances students' motivation. This motivation improvement is achieved through group interactions and educational games that create an enjoyable and interactive classroom atmosphere. The study recommends schools to implement the TGT model from the beginning of the semester to allow students time to adapt and experience the benefits of this teaching method, thereby sustaining student motivation throughout the learning process.

Joseph of Nazareth: discovering resources for Catholic education

Joseph of Nazareth: discovering resources for Catholic education

Exploring the extent to which ‘spiritual capital’ is impactful in a cross-section of Catholic independent schools with a founding religious trusteeship

Gerald Grace (2002. Catholic Schools: Mission, Markets and Morality. London: Routledge), borrowing from the sociological constructs of Pierre Bourdieu, speaks of the significance of the spiritual and cultural capital of religious orders in providing a substantial catalyst in the development of Catholic education in England and Wales This article endeavours to explore the extent to which spiritual capital remains impactful in a cross-section of Catholic Independent schools with a founding religious trusteeship in the UK, taking into account the changing ecclesial demography within the Catholic Church in the UK alongside contemporary education challenges. Following a critical retrieval of literature relating to the concept of spiritual capital, this article will classify and interpret research evidence based interviews with headteachers of a range of Catholic Independent schools.

Financial Capability as a Predictor of Financial Satisfaction among Catholic Higher Education Employees: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed Method Inquiry

Understanding the financial capability and satisfaction of Catholic Higher Education Institution (CHEI) employees is crucial in addressing their financial well-being. Hence, this paper quantitatively assessed the financial capability and financial satisfaction of CHEI employees. Meanwhile, the qualitative phase explored the factors influencing financial capability and financial satisfaction through interviews. By employing a sequential explanatory mixed-method approach, the research provided a holistic understanding of how financial capability impacts financial satisfaction and explore potential strategies to enhance their financial well-being. The quantitative phase involved a self-made research instrument. The researcher employed tools like frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, and regression analysis. For the qualitative phase, data collection involved a semi-structured interview. Lichtman's 3 Cs analyzed the transcribed data. The quantitative results revealed that the CHEI employees has a high financial capability. However, they are financially dissatisfied. In their demographics, income, educational attainment, and employment classification has a significant relationship of CHEI financial capability. In financial satisfaction, only income and educational attainment has a significant relationship. Moreover, the qualitative results revealed that having alternative means of living, receiving spousal support, and having fewer dependents are key elements that enhance the financial resilience and flexibility of CHEI employees. However, despite their financial capability, the research indicates that CHEI employees may face financial dissatisfaction linked to employment-related issues. Factors such as limited career advancement opportunities and lower monthly salary levels are identified as significant contributors to their financial dissatisfaction.

Religiosity and Resilience in Students of the Faculty of Catholic Religious Education

Religiosity and Resilience in Students of the Faculty of Catholic Religious Education

Renewing the Challenge of Peace through the Promise of Active Nonviolence

In 1983 the US bishops issued a deeply influential pastoral letter, The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response, which addressed moral questions of warfare, particularly in the context of the Cold War. Four decades later, it is clear that the challenge to build just and peaceful societies is still with us in the US and throughout the world. This article supports the development of new documents—whether episcopal or papal—to center nonviolence in Catholic teaching, to demonstrate the value and efficacy of active nonviolence in working toward a just peace, and to clarify the relationship between nonviolence and the just war tradition. It makes suggestions as to how such a document might be rooted in the Christian tradition and discipleship, and what issues must urgently be addressed.

“With utmost caution and restraint.” The making of Roman Catholic sex education in the German-speaking area, 1900s to 1930s

ABSTRACT While the emergence of sex education in the early 20th century is well studied, religious reactions to it remained under-studied. The paper addresses this gap by analysing the emergence of Roman Catholic sex education in the German-speaking area from the turn of the century to the 1930s. It explores official doctrinal guidelines, inner-Catholic debates, and the growing body of Catholic sex education publications. The paper argues that for the Roman Catholic Church, sex education was not a mere pedagogical problem but a topic that raised overarching questions such as how to deal with modern natural sciences, female emancipation, or the secular school system. The findings suggest that lay people and clergy working in pastoral care were the driving force for the modernisation of the discourse vis-à-vis a more conservative church authority.

Review: Catholic Higher Education and Catholic Social Thought, Bernard G. Prusak and Jennifer Reed-Bouley, eds.

Review: Catholic Higher Education and Catholic Social Thought, Bernard G. Prusak and Jennifer Reed-Bouley, eds.

PENGAJARAN AGAMA KATOLIK DI SEKOLAH MENUMBUH NILAI KEJUJURAN DAN KEBENARAN DALAM DIRI PESERTA DIDIK

Honesty and truth are the important values ​​for human life because they are related to the good behaviors. Educational institution has an important role in educating students’ character of being honesty and truth in the life of students at school. Catholic religious teaching in schools is an effort made by a Catholic religious teacher to instill so called Christian values of honesty and truth in life of students. The research conducted with the following aims: 1) to analyze the extent of efforts made by Catholic religious teacher to instill the values ​​of honesty and truth in students’ life; and 2) to analyze the extent to which those values taught by Catholic religious teachers have a positive impact on the students' behavior. The research was conducted using qualitative methods. Research data was obtained through individual interviews. Research data analysis used an inductive approach. The results of research data analysis revealed that majority of informants revealed that they had tried their best to instill the values ​​of honesty and truth in the life of students through Catholic religious teaching in schools.

Just War and Judgment in Fratelli Tutti

For decades the papal tradition has renounced the term ‘war’ as something around which to build an ethical approach. One can sympathize with this: resort to war seems the consequence of ethical failure and brings in its train a host of brutalities including rape, torture, and murder that harm both victims and perpetrators. But that view of ‘war’ is an incomplete representation of the possibilities of the uses of force to secure legitimate political goods. Thus the popes have struggled to maintain a clear voice in the face of abject tragedies like the Russian invasion of Ukraine: on the one hand, Pope Francis condemns war in an almost absolute manner; on the other, he recognizes the legitimacy of Ukrainian defensive uses of force. In so doing, of course, he merely abides the so-called ‘just war theory’ he seems to have discarded. My contribution will focus on the current state of the just war in Catholic teaching. I will maintain the state remains where it has been since at least the middle of the twentieth century: skeptical about the capacity of states to judge in terms of international law, but cognizant of their right to defend themselves against ongoing aggression.

Magister Gratianus tanítása a házassági akadályokról

Many legal scholars have examined the question of how to reconcile Gratian’s willingness to use both the Justinianic and the pre-Justinianic Roman law that he found in his sources with his apparent unwillingness or inability to use Justinian’s Roman law books at first hand. This paper focuses on another root of European legal culture, the Judaeo-Christian legal heritage. It addresses the question to what extent Gratian’s concept of marriage, based on a contemporary interpretation of the marriage of Mary and Joseph based on the decision of the Council of Ephesus (431), contributed to the clarification of the system of marriage impediments in 12th century canon law, and to what extent the magister used arguments based on biblical passages to do so. The canon law from the early Middle Ages allowed a husband to divorce his unfaithful wife, while the Western Church of Gratian’s age opposed the dissolution of the marriage bond and only recognised the possibility of separating the spouses from bed and table. Therefore, the significance of the subject lies primarily in the fact that in the case of some impediments to marriage the magister saw the possibility of dissolution of the unconsummated union (a so-called initiated marriage) and, in a few, not common cases of the consummated marriage too. The principle of indissolubility, although annulment and dissolution of marriage are different legal instruments, was not necessarily applied in this period either. However, Gratian’s particular concept of marriage and his legal explanations of the impediments to marriage contributed significantly to the fact that the only ground for divorce mentioned in the Gospels, adultery, could not lead to the dissolution of the bond. In the 16th century, Protestant divorce law was primarily a reaction to this understanding, and also the Catholic teaching on the impediments to marriage continued to evolve, formally still adhering to the principle of indissolubility.

Formation Fit for Purpose: Empowering Religious Educators Working in Catholic Schools

The purpose of this paper is to provide curriculum support to religious educators working in Catholic schools. The paper provides a practical response to research advocating serious attention be given to religious educators because they are at the “coalface” of Catholic education, increasingly confronted by content and policy decisions, the diverse values and needs of their students, and other competing cultural and social challenges. Religious educators play a significant role in the evangelising mission of the Catholic Church as interpreters of Scripture and Tradition and can positively or negatively influence the quality of their students’ learning and its application. Entitled RECALL, the support offered to religious educators in this paper is research-led and utilises educational, standards-based principles. It is a community-minded approach that aims to build religious literacy and deepen the religious educators’ awareness and connections to the legacy of the Catholic Faith Tradition. The desired outcome is to inspire evidence-based conversations encompassing faith and reason, the perceived value and reality of the identity and mission of the Catholic Church, and its impact on Catholic culture and education. Intended to enhance rather than replace existing professional formation, the approach has structures, pedagogical processes, and practices that draw from a set of overarching theoretical considerations. Furthermore, the approach employs three guiding questions for categorising and analysing Catholic content. The questions are: (i) “Who are we as Catholics and what is our mission?” (ii) “What do we believe?” and (iii) “How do we practice?” The proposed curriculum support to religious educators may foster a culture of learning in Religious Education that is focused on improving and progressing the quality of educational outcomes for students. The premise is that if religious educators are supported to engage with the great Gospel narrative, their students may do the same.

Colonial Catholicism and Jesuit Education in Ireland: Navigating Faith, Education, and Politics in the 19th Century

Anchored in the Ignatian ethos of spirituality and education, Jesuit education initially emerged as a vehicle for spiritual development within the Catholic sphere. In Ireland, from the early 19th century onwards, it was strategically aligned with British colonial interests, fostering a unique form of colonial Catholicism. This article examines how Jesuit education served the domestic elite during British rule, employing education strategically to bolster Catholic interests in the 19th century. It focuses on how institutions like Tullabeg and Clongowes became instrumental in merging Catholic education with colonial aims, purportedly under a divine mandate. This scrutiny reveals that the colonial drive towards a Westernized, secular approach in religion and education unexpectedly strengthened religious identities and their political sway, countering the prevalent assumption that modernization equates to secularization. The analysis of the roles played by these premier boarding schools in cultivating colonial Catholicism demonstrates that Jesuit education in Ireland was significant in reshaping the dynamics of religion, education, and politics. This case study highlights the complex outcomes of colonial religious and educational strategies, highlighting the persistent impact of colonialism on Ireland’s religious character and societal conversation. It illuminates the intricate interplay between faith, education, and colonialism.

Creation, Thomas Berry, and the Church in Africa

The ecological crisis is a sign of the times, demanding adequate understanding, appropriate interpretation, and pastoral action in light of the Christian faith. Scholarly discourse on the ecological crisis continues to inspire partnership and collaborative actions in Africa. Sometimes, these efforts have yielded significant results, though amid uncharted territories. Scholars appeal for humans to embrace a mutually enhancing relationship with creation to build a common home for all creatures. A suitable and sustainable ecological vision that supports a communitarian approach to resolving the ecological crisis is Thomas Berry’s cosmology. Berry’s cosmological vision reclaims a creation theology that fosters a mutual relationship between humans and other creatures. Humans are beings in communion and beings in relationships created by God and thus from a common origin and moving toward a common destiny. This cosmological presupposition of Berry aligns with the ecological vision of Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’. The Pope calls humanity to a new cosmic relationship that would foster interdependency of the ecosystem and respect the intrinsic value of every creature. Given the unprecedented ecological challenges, humans have a unique role as intelligent beings toward other creatures, for future generations and the common good of the earth. This human responsibility toward the earth can be realized through an ecological ethics that fosters interdependence, interconnection, and mutuality in the human–earth relationship. Berry’s insights and Catholic ecological teachings merit consideration for African Catholicism.

Strategy of teacher in Improving the Learning Outcomes of Public Junior High School Students

One of the factors influencing learning outcomes is the ability of teachers to implement teaching strategies effectively. A monotonous teaching process can lead to decreased student motivation and lower learning outcomes. This study aims to investigate the teaching strategies used by Catholic Education teachers to enhance student learning outcomes at SMP Negeri 2 Namorambe. The research adopts a qualitative approach, where data obtained is analyzed through data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The findings reveal that teachers utilize various strategies to improve student learning outcomes, such as employing instructional models involving syntax, principles of social system response, supportive systems, and instructional impact. Following the implementation of these strategies, student learning outcomes in Catholic Education subjects show improvement across cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects. The effective classroom management skills of teachers also positively impact student learning outcomes. Therefore, the participation and support of the school community, particularly the school principal, are crucial in facilitating the enhancement of teaching quality and mastery of instructional models among teachers